Changing the Game with Wearable Sensors

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim

Customer Snapshot:Overview

13 million data points in 10 minutes

A member of the Federal Football League or “Bundesliga”, TSG 1899 Hoffenheim rose to Germany’s top football division in 2008-2009 after their first season. With great pride, TSG Hoffenheim has established a world-class youth center to provide life-changing football experiences for young players. Much like they did in 2008, TSG Hoffenheim continues seeking ways to elevate their game.

1899

1989-1990

1998

1999

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim got their own home, complete with their own clubhouse, as the club soared to new heights in the footballing world.

2007-2008

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim’s expanded into a new 30,000 seat stadium.

2008-2009

The team makes a remarkable advance to the German football league system’s top-tier, the Bundesliga

Customer Snapshot:Business Model

Optimized Player Training

From their youth leagues to professional team, TSG 1899 Hoffenheim wants to gather and analyze every aspect of each player’s performance. Then the football club wants to transform that analysis into achievement.

Training Children, Training Pros.

Customer Snapshot:Success Strategy

World-Class Technology for a World-Class Game

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim transformed from a local amateur club to a competitive Bundesliga club by investing in talent and technology. As the club prepares for their seventh Bundesliga season, investments in people, processes, and technology continue to dominate the team’s strategic blueprint. The team has added new players and will continue to refine player conditioning as training camp approaches in the summer of 2014.

The Challenge

Technical, Tactical, Athletic, and Psychological Improvement

Football is a complex game that is physically and mentally demanding. To get each player to perform at their peak, TSG 1899 Hoffenheim wants to personalize each player’s training by documenting and analyzing tactical, spatial, training, game, and health data.

Finding associations in a complex game.

Enter SAP

Delivering Real-time Spatial Analytics

The spatial analytics capabilities of SAP HANA create opportunities to learn how players behave in different situations and under different conditions. Coaches and trainers are now able to adjust training for each player according to their individual performance in each training element. By personalizing training plans, players at all levels have the opportunity to elevate their game.

Monitoring every move.

Enter SAP:The SAP Experience

More than Just a Business Partnership

The relationship between TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and SAP is much more nuanced than many client-business partnerships because of Dietmar Hopp. The SAP AG co-founder is an alumnus of TSG 1899 and a major benefactor of the team. The belief that technological excellence helps support organizational excellence pervades the football club and is visible throughout its state-of-the-art facilities and operations. Taking a data-driven approach to improving player performance is the next logical step, and SAP solutions are an integral part of the team’s championship vision.

Better Business

Making Sense of Sensor Data

Technology partner Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft has provided TSG 1899 Hoffenheim with sensors embedded in the player uniforms and equipment, including shin guards and footballs. In just ten minutes, 16 players practicing with 6 balls can generate nearly 13 million data points that SAP HANA then processes in real time.

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim is using the data to identify individual player strengths and weaknesses, which can be harnessed for both game performance improvement and injury prevention.

Sensors in the uniform, the shin guards…even the ball.

Better Business:Benefits

Four Principal Benefits

Capturing

player and team data

Customizing

training programs

Boosting

performance

Reducing

risk of injuries

Addressing stress tolerances of individual players – right on the training field!

Better Business:Lessons Learned

Finding the Patterns in Complex Play

Football can be beautifully complex, but within that complexity there are patterns. With the right technology, TSG 1899 Hoffenheim is able to collect and analyze motion, position, velocity, heart rate, and many other game and player metrics as a meaningful whole. The thoughtful and careful examination of the whole using spatial analytics capabilities of SAP HANA can reveal consequential information about players, strategies, and tactics that can influence the outcome of a single goal, a single game, and even a championship season.

Better Business:Run Simple

The Power of Hard Data

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim captures and analyzes a wide variety of data from team practices and games with help from the spatial analytics capabilities of SAP HANA. Real-time data helps the team develop both player and team performance with personalized training programs and the ability to make in-game adjustments with greater confidence and precision.

Journey Ahead

10% Mystery, 90% Big Data

Football is a fast-paced, dynamic game filled with actions and reactions among players, meaning there will always be some unpredictability. But 1899 TSG Hoffenheim wants to do everything it can to control the rest. The club will continue collecting relevant performance attributes via sensors and analyzing them with the spatial analytics capabilities of SAP HANA.

Coaches and trainers want to continue expanding analytics capabilities and applying them to new uses such as talent scouting and game strategy.